October192012

I am 26 years old. I have a 2 year old daughter and 4 step children. My fiancee works 14 hours a day, 6 days a week and we still can’t pay our bills. My mom buys most of my daughter’s clothes and toys. I had to move 2 hours away from my family for him to keep this job. Because of the cost of day care, I can’t afford to work. Even though I really need it to pay off bills and get a car, I won’t be getting a tax refund this year because of me having to quit my job to move. My Fiancee can’t claim our daughter because his taxes our being garnished for a child he wasn’t listed as the father of until she was 11 months old. So he received 11 months of arrears. We made payments on time, but when he lost his job he only made 2 weeks of partial payments. Because of this, they garnished his taxes. We have tried to work with them to fix it, but they won’t help us at all. I have no credit and because of this I had to pay a $700 deposit for my electricity. This is not okay! I have health problems I can’t afford to go to the doctor for. I don’t drive at night because I can’t see and can’t afford to get new glasses. Thank God I finally qualified for food stamps so I don’t have to worry about how I am going to feed my family for 3 weeks out of the month (if I eat lunch and dinner only the $ lasts for 3 weeks). I stress out every single day about bills and finances. And no matter what we do we never get ahead. I’d appreciate it if people stopped calling me lazy, stop saying I don’t try, and stop telling me I don’t want to help myself. Because it’s BS. I worked until a week I have worked every day of my adult life, and up till a week before I had my daughter. I then went back to work 6 weeks later. I have done everything you claim I should do to get ahead, and so has me Fiancee, and instead it’s getting worse. I want the American Dream, I want to succeed, and I want to give my daughter the best life possible. All I want is an even playing field and a fair shot.

October182012

I am Jacob Gourley age 19 and recently graduated from high school in Michigan and I have a wonderful woman who cares for me and we want a family together a house and just to be normal nobody special just to be somebody. I can not find work I am in college and tried to apply for food stamps they say I do not qualify for them because I attend college. My dad does not understand he is disabled and gets his checks and tells me if you don’t find a job soon I am going to stop paying for your phone bill and you have to move out you can not live here forever. He also says If I could work I would have a job in less than a week. I cry for everyone I pray that we the poor never loose hope no matter how bad it gets. My girlfriend who is 18 is almost done with school she is worried about the future of us as well. I help a friend out on a paper route making $10 a week $40 a month what is this to pay a phone bill that is $60 a month I am at the library using a computer. I am scared and feel alone and if it were not for my girlfriend I would be dead. I have done dozens of applications, phone calls, and submitting hundreds of applications online and after 4 months not one call. My dad thinks I am scared to work I am not I want to work. I beg this younger generation to wait to have kids because the economy is so bad. I want freedom, life, liberty, and most of all the pursuit of happiness. I barely have life, almost no liberty’s but one thing I want most is happiness. I believe love is more valuable than money. The 99% is 6,930,000,000 people strong and counting. I am the 99%.

After enrolling in a honors program at a private college, my parents went bankrupt when my father lost his business in the crash of the Michigan economy. My parents divorced and I was estranged from my family.

I lived in Chicago where rent for a college student is $500/month. Add rood and utilities and I had no money left. I had no health insurance and “slept off” bronchitis. I just recently paid off the medical bills I had from the one time I needed to pay out of pocket for an emergency and just did not have the money. I could not afford a text book 3/4 of the years I was in college and read them at the bookstore in between class (5:45-9pm) and work (7am-5pm) (that is 14 hour day of work, 6 days a week, without homework or travel included in that)

I worked and went to school full-time. I made my classes. Never missed work, and did extra.

I out read, out worked and out energized my peers, without a community of people I knew or trusted. They could not have helped me if they had wanted to.

I am 28. I make well over $100,000/year and pay down the $60K of debt I took out as a 18 year old with no cosigner for my loans ($500/month). I have worked my ass off, stayed inspired and made smart choices when I wanted to give up.

I am the 2% after living on corn flakes & water, and my own ambition- I stand with the 99% and say do not give up!

September302012

I am a female mechanical engineering student. I’m so good at Calculus, Physics, and 3-D designs. Dean’s List student, even for classes as Calc 3 and Dynamics. I have no co-signer for loans, so I am only eligible for enough to cover books and tuition. It’s taken my 5 years to complete 6 semesters because I run up my credit cards to pay for gas and food, and I can’t go back until I pay the balance down some. My cards are currently completely maxed, and I fear that I am beginning to lose Calculus knowledge that I learned in 2005. My car is ready to break down at 130,000 miles, and my debt payments are $700 just for interest every month. I have been paying on and off between semesters and I still have $5000 to go before I even begin to pay the principal balance. I’m 25, live at home, and I bartend 50 hours a week. I want to design machines and energy systems that have a positive impact on our society, but I’m getting you HAMMERED and cleaning up after your party instead. I especially enjoy when people talk to me like an idiot because you got the wrong cheese on your burger. I know - I’m serving you dinner because I must be a stupid girl.

September252012

Rolling Stone: After selling his own line of Occupy Wall Street swag last fall, Jay-Z comes to his senses and questions their purpose, "I'm not going to a park and picnic, I have no idea what to do, I don't know what the fight is about. What do we want, do you know?" The movement's Guitarmy plans a 'teach-in' at Jay-Z's next concert in Brooklyn, "We have spent one year on the streets organizing for exactly the things Jay rapped about in his early days, ending urban poverty, ending Stop & Frisk and police use of lethal force, of returning dignity and hope to the everyday people of New York City." "Civil rights struggles? I'm gettin' paper." --WB Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/occupy-wall-street-plans-teach-in-after-jay-z-questions-movement-20120910#ixzz267CA1fL7

September152012

I am a 30 year old Software Engineer with vast experience in technology. I have quit my job that paid $67,000 a year with medical benefits due to the harrassment and threat of termination from my former supervisor due to his actions that costs the my former company thousands of dollars. Had I stayed, I would’ve been fired to save the company money. In either case, I have been denied unemployment which has resulted me in losing my apartment, car, and food. I have been denied access to all social saftey net programs because I have simply made the decision to quit rather than be fired. I have been without a job for 5 months now even though I am a highly skilled and hard working employee. My income tax of over $2500 has been seized to pay a school loan as well as child support. I have absolutely no income, due to the laws of this country that has made sure people like me have no access to public housing, medical care, or financial assistance. Although things for me have not been the greatest, I will not give up my rights as a human being to live, fight, and change things for the better for myself and people like me who are in my situation. My situation has strengthened my resolve in making sure that I can bring change to a country where change is severely needed. Our politicians need to listen to people without money, instead of people with an overabundance of it. We live in a country where there are empty homes, and homeless people; 24 hour grocery stores with men, women and children are starving to death; Universities that lack students yet millions of potential minds seeking an education; and a Federal Reserve that has countless funds of money yet millions of people in extreme and severe poverty. Where is my government that I paid for? Where is my government where I live?